Central Illinois Radio Club October 2014 Newsletter

Next Meeting Wednesday Oct 22, 2014 Central Illinois Radio Club October 2014 Newsletter Don t forget, next month the NOVEMBER CIRC MEETING WILL BE ON THE THIRD WEDNESDAY of November, that is on November 19 th in order to avoid conflicts with the Thanksgiving holiday. Set this date aside! Christmas dinner will be Wednesday, December 3 at the Ozark House - 6:00pm. We will have space reserved in open seating and will be able to order from the menu. Page 1

October Meeting, Wednesday the 22nd 7:00 PM at the Red Cross From the President Now that fall weather is upon us it is time to take a last look around outside and be sure the station is ready for the onset of even tougher winter weather to come. My fall cleanup is almost done now. In the process I found a rat s nest of coax at the base of my tower, which had somehow accumulated over the past year or so. During the cleanup process I found a damaged feed line. A piece of RG-213 coaxial cable was missing a strip of its outer black jacket. The copper shield was a little roughed up, but mostly intact. A closer inspection revealed tiny serrations along the edge of the damage insulation. A little CSI work revealed that the marks matched the damage to a plastic watering can which had been left out in the yard earlier. Yep, you guessed it. The squirrel at my coax! Since the shield looked pretty good I patched over the damaged area and finished sorting out the cables. The damaged section wound up inside the house and out of the weather, which made me feel better. The antenna seems to be working the same as before, so we ll hope it makes it through the winter. Last weekend Duane and Sue Benjamin hosted the CIRC at their home for a fall wiener roast and potluck dinner. The games were great and everyone had a very enjoyable evening. Thanks to Duane KC9PIM and Sue for hosting the event! This month the CIRC meeting will be on Wednesday, October 22 at 7:00 pm at the Red Cross building in Bloomington. After our business meeting Keith AC9S will show us his new vector network analyzer. A VNA is a great piece of test equipment, but until recently they were so expensive that they were beyond the reach of amateurs. With RF chips becoming less expensive, VNA s can now be manufactured and sold at prices which put them in reach of the amateur market. Be sure to come and see what it s all about. Don t forget, next month the NOVEMBER CIRC MEETING WILL BE ON THE THIRD WEDNESDAY of November, that is on November 19 th conflicts with the Thanksgiving holiday. See you at the meeting! Grant Zehr AA9LC in order to avoid October 2014 Page 2 CIRC meeting October 22, 2014 Agenda 1. Introductions and new members -AA9LC 2. Minutes of September 2014 mtg. - KC9PIM 3. Treasurer s report -KC9SKF 4. ARRL Affiliated Club Coord. -AA9LC 5. Two meter net sign up -KC9GF 6. Radio Room Manager -N9ZKS 7. Reminder date November Mtg. -AA9LC 8. Reminder Christmas dinner -AC9S 9. Old Business 10. New business 11. Adjourn 12. Program Using a VNA -AC9S Minutes of the Sep 24, 2014 regular meeting of the Central Illinois Radio Club (CIRC) 1. Grant, AA9LC, opened the meeting as president. We did a round of introductions with a welcome to two new visitors - K9XW (Dick) and WA9G (Larry). 2. Minutes of the August 2014 meeting were accepted by unanimous vote. Tom, KJ9P, made the motion, seconded by Gary, AB9M. 3. Norm, N9ZKS, gave the treasure s report - $1690.16 balance. Accepted by unanimous vote. Dennis, KE9UA, made the motion, Mike, KC9FWL, seconded. 4. Cathy Huber, KC9SKF, was installed for a 2 year term as treasurer. Thanks to Norm, N9ZKS, who has served in the position for many years! 5. Grant, AA9LC was approached by the new Illinois ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator, Scott KB9DRW, who asked if we would open up the reflector to nonclub personnel. We decided not to do so. All significant public information is already available on the website. 6. Tom, KJ9P, resigned as the Radio Room Manager. Thanks for your service and organization Tom. Grant appointed Norm, N9ZKS, as the replacement R 2 M. 7. QSI manager There was a brief discussion on the need for a club QSL manager. Tom, KJ9P, has been serving informally as one for the last 3 years, with a total of 6 cards handled. We pended discussion. 8. Fall Weiner Roast Reminder Duane, KC9PIM, will host a Fall Weiner Roast October 11 @ 6:30.

Location the Duane Benjamin farm East of Towanda, same place as last year. A great time was had last year!!! 9. Upcoming meeting dates: The 4 th Wednesday of November is the day prior to Thanksgiving. Nov 19 was proposed as an alternative; Norm, N9ZKS, will check with the Red Cross. The December meeting is our Christmas dinner, traditionally the 1 st week of December. Keith, AC9S, will coordinate the dinner location. Christmas dinner will be Wednesday, December 3 at the Ozark House - 6:00pm. We will have space reserved in open seating and will be able to order from the menu. 10. Old Business: a. Josh, KC9UJS, coordinated communications for the WeCare half Marathon on Sept 27. Gary, KD9F, was net control with Hari, VU2SPZ, and Dhruv, KC9ZTX, assisting. Mike, KC9FWL, Rick, N9CKL, Keith, AC9S, Jim WB9UWA, Greg, KC9WVR, Earla, N9VXY, Norm, N9ZKS, and Ed, KC9GF manned race checkpoints. Apologies if I missed anyone. b. JOTA is the 3 rd weekend in October. We do not plan on using the club station. Participation from home is encouraged. c. Banners. We voted to approve purchase of 6 x 2.5 special event banner and an 8 x 2.5 regular club banner. Cost is approximately $50. Norm, N9ZKS, motioned and Tom, KJ9P, approved. 11. New Business: a. Gary, KD9F, was approached by the Livingston County emergency coordinator to organize ham communications for the county. He will keep us appraised of progress. There is potential to reactivate our ARES activities. b. Mike, KC9FWL, commented on the amount of equipment that was swapped between club members at the Peoria hamfest. He suggested a periodic swapfest in Bloomington, perhaps quarterly. c. Keith, AC9S, brought up a topic for Ed, KC9GF. Tuesday night net control has been ad-hoc lately. We need to better organize. Grant, AA9LC, will address at the next meeting. 12. Motion to adjourn by Keith, AC9S, seconded by Mike, KC9FWL. 13. Tom, KJ9P, provided a program on mobile installation. Actually, this was done prior to the meeting in the parking lot while the Girl Scouts occupied our room. Thanks for an excellent program Tom. You are certainly getting results! 14. Rick, N9CKL, shared video from his security camera of a grill fire on his deck. The fire was so hot the magnesium grill ignited. He is incredibly lucky the Fire Department managed to carry the burning, metal dripping, grill down to the ground before the house caught fire. Take away point his non-flammable grill pad probably saved the day. Another take away do not throw water on either a grease fire or magnesium fire. Magnesium burns incredibly hot and bright, the stuff of WWII aircraft incendiaries. Respectfully Keith, AC9S.. Thanks to Duane For A Great Party Duane cooking the Italian Sausage, Brats and Dogs Page 3

Kathy, Greg and Sharon winners of the Best Dessert, Best Cold Side and Best Hot Side respectively. Duane Leading the games This may have been one of last year s attendees. The Attendees Main course consisted of Bratwurst, Mild Italian Sausages & Hot Dogs. There were prizes for the best hot side dish, cold side dish and desert. Also for the winners of the contests (Halloween crossword, word search, scrambled word and difference between pictures) Duane s Drake 2C provided background "ham" chatter. Lots of compliments were heard at coffee and after the party. Page 4

Heading into the fall and winter seems like a good time to try and pin down some of the ideas that have come up at meetings. 1. Swap meet day what would be a good time for this? (see #2) 2. Operating days in the club station Considering the Red Cross schedule it seems to me that Sunday afternoon might be a time that people could come and use the station without interfering with the Red Cross people. On the other hand, should Sunday perhaps be protected day as far as club activities? Do we want to stay away from Sundays altogether? Maybe Wednesday evenings away from club nights. We need to come up with a time we can use our station, but not bother the RC too much. Maybe we could combine an operating day with the swap meet. I think if we identify specific times we ll have more interest in using the station. 3. Programs for meetings: a. This month (Oct) Keith AC9S is going to show off his new Vector Network analyzer. b. November Maybe Duane will have a presentation on using his Flex radio, especially in the digital modes. Do you think you will be ready to go in November, Duane? c. Another idea (what do you think) Amateur satellites I could do something on either the new Fun- Cube satellite (AO-73) or perhaps on using the ISS digital repeater. d. Another idea (what do you think) I could ask Craig K9CT to talk about the FT5ZM Dxpedition. I think he did a presentation at Dayton, so it might not be too much work for him. e. Another idea (what do you think) We could have a Cheap Tricks night. I continue to be surprised by ways that our members have found to do things in an inexpensive, but still very high quality way. Tom KJ9P built a coax switch from a simple light switch, and it works fine for him. We could screen the ideas and test them to be sure they are really good to use. f. Another idea (what do you think) Moonbounce g. Another idea (what do you think) logging programs perhaps compare and contrast the choices. We ll need to decide if we are going to use computer logging in the club station and if we do we should be getting that set up also. h. Another idea (what do you think) - Digital mode re-visit Maybe pick just one mode (such as JT-65 or Olivia) and discuss how to get it up and running. Or maybe more modes. 4. Other ideas for programs - send ideas to the group. I d like to get the program schedule done up in advance. Maybe we should ask the membership 5. Do we want to do a Winter Saturday at the Red Cross again this year? I d say yes, what do you think? We should be getting it on the schedule. 6. Norm, do we need to do any outside work to have the club station ready for winter? I m thinking that we still need to run a coax to the OCF dipole antenna. Maybe that is already in place. That should be enough to think about for a while. It would be nice to have some consensus on items 1 & 2 for the meeting next week if that is possible. 73 Grant G3BHK The founding father of the Jamboree On The Air, Mr Leslie Mitchell, has gone home on his last journey. Page 5 The young Les Mitchell was a sea-scout and later joined the Royal Navy, where he was trained in radio. Les spent a year in the U.S.A. and another in Australia, becoming a Scout Leader in both countries. When he did become a radio amateur, with his own call sign G3BHK, what struck him was the similarity between Scouts and Radio Amateurs in the friendly way they transcend class, creed, colour, religion and political boundaries. In 1957, a World Scout Jamboree was held at Sutton Park in central England, with 35,000 Scouts from 62 countries attending. For the

first time at any World Jamboree local radio amateurs installed and operated a large station under the call sign GB3SP. Scouts and leaders were allowed to visit, as long as they stayed behind the little fence with the flower pots and kept the noise down. Les Mitchell was very surprised by the number of overseas Scout radio amateurs attending the Jamboree and decided that some effort should be made to bring them all together. A notice in the Jamboree Newspaper resulted in daily coffee meetings during which they got to know each other. The meetings were actually held in a snack bar outside the gate, as meeting in the GB3GP radio station would produce too much background noise for the operators. Towards the end of the Jamboree they were all a little sad, and someone remarked that we might try to contact each other on the air. This then developed into the idea of trying to make contact on one specific day, and Les was asked to make the necessary arrangements. Then Les got the visionary idea: why not run the event for a whole weekend and ask all radio amateurs throughout the world with an interest in the Scout Movement to put their stations on the air and, at the same time, invite their local Scouts to join them. So JOTA was born. (This was his own choice of title for Les felt it described exactly what the event was a Jamboree-on-the-Air.) In October 1957, Les organized a weekend station with his local Scout group in Reading, Berkshire, to test the idea. Using only a 40 watt transmitter (AM) they made contacts all over the world, and it was obvious that the interest was such that a worldwide Radio Jamboree could be envisaged. He drew up rules for the event keeping them as simple as possible. In fact, they were so simple that they have remained unchanged ever since. Les soon realized that he would not be able to cope with the correspondence likely to arise in the future on a worldwide basis, and successfully solicited the support of the World Scout Bureau, then in Ottawa, Canada. It is now past history that the event has gradually expanded to become the largest international event on the Scout calendar. In 2014 we are expecting to have close to a million young Scouts participing on the radio-waves and internet. Les kept coordinating all JOTA activities in the UK up to 1988 and played an active role during the event up to very recent. In the introduction to the JOTA history booklet published in 2007, Les Mitchell wrote while I certainly did originate JOTA, I feel I have been showered with too much credit, for I just gave the boulder a push and it gathered its own momentum as it rolled down the hillside! We must not forget, too, the thousands of individual radio amateurs who have each contributed time and effort to make JOTA enjoyable for so many years. Les Mitchell, G3BHK, silent key October 2014. Page 6

-Nets in the Area Mon thru Sat 9:00 A.M. CT 14.2475 (HF) Displaced Peorians Tuesday 9:00 P.M. 146.255 (103.5 PL) Woodford County Tuesday 7:15 P.M. 146.910 Tazwell County ESDA Net Tuesday 8:30 P.M. 28.450 CIRC Open 10 meter Net Tuesday 9:00 P.M. 146.940 (103.5PL) CIRC Open Net Wednesday 9:00 P.M. 147.060 Open Net Has Newsline Wednesday 9:00 P.M. 442.250 103.5 PL ARES Open Net Varies 147.100 103.5 PL Sometimes Trader s Net follows ARES Net held on 442.250 Thursday 7:00 P.M. 50.135 Open 6 meter Net Thursday 9:00 P.M. 146.760 (162.2 PL) Open Net with Newsline Thursday 9:00 P.M. 146.850 (103.5 PL) Open Net Peoria Sunday 08:15 A.M. 1.915 Open 160 meter AM net Sunday 7:00 P.M. 146.985 Clinton ARC net Sunday 8:30 P.M 147.075 Open Net with Newsline Sunday 8:30 P.M. 146.730 123.0 PL Open Net (Please help me keep this list correct. I know it may not be up to date at this time. Recent changes Norm N9ZKS) Regular Calendar of Events Daily Coffee Klatch Monday thru Friday 9:00 a.m. at Dairy Queen Veterans at Cub s XYL s Join the OM s Monday and Friday Weekly 10 Meter Net Every Tuesday evening at 28.450 mhz- at 8:30 p.m. Weekly 2 Meter Net Every Tuesday evening on the 146.940-repeater at 9:00 p.m. Weekly 6 Meter Net Every Thursday evening at 50.135 mhz at 7:00 P.M. Weekly 160 Meter AM Net NOTE FREQUENCY Every Sunday morning at 1.915 mhz at 8:15 A.M. CIRC Meeting Fourth Wednesdays of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Red Cross building in Bloomington (Just north of the airport) Central Illinois Area Repeaters Freq Callsign Location PL 144.390 N9PE-2 Bloomington APRS Digipeater 145.390 N9EZJ Lincoln WX RACES 103.5 146.730 K9HGX Decatur(Echolink) 123.0 146.790 WD9HRU McLEAN CO ARES 103.5 Anti PL on 107.2 146.850 K9PEO PAARC 103.5 146.940 W9AML CIRC Club - ARES 103.5 CTCSS Back Up 146.985 KA9YPK Clinton 147.015 NX9M Normal ARES Alt. 88.5 (open*) 147.075 W9UVI Washington 103.5 CTCSS 147.105 WA9RTI Decatur 103.5 147.150 WD9FTV Bloomington 103.5 147.345 K9ZM Lincoln ESDA 103.5 147.390 WB9DUC Pontiac FARA 127.3 442.250 WA9RTI Decatur (ARES) 103.5 442.700 WB9UUS Normal 107.2 443.800 K9HGX CENOIS ARC 123.0 444.175 K9MCA Decatur 100.0 * Repeater is currently in open mode with pl for those with QRM Central Illinois Radio Club P.O. Box 993 Bloomington, IL 61702-0993 Web Page http://www.qsl.net/w9aml/ President: Grant Zehr (AA9LC) Vice-President: Earl Shaffer (WB9UWA) Secretary: Duane Benjamin (KC9PIM) Treasurer: Kathy Huber (KC9SKF) Newsletter Editor: Norman Huber (N9ZKS) The CIRC is a not-for-profit ARRL special service club whose purpose is to advance the service of Amateur Radio. Located in Central Illinois, CIRC and its members welcome all to use the 146.94 repeater and to attend club meetings. Submissions for the newsletter should be received by the 15th of the month and may be snail or e- mailed to the editor at: Norm Huber 19266 US Highway 150 Bloomington, IL 61705-5855 e-mail n9zks@frontier.com Permission is granted to Amateur Radio-related organizations to reproduce contents of Short CIRCuits provided full credit is given. AREA EXAM DATES Following is the schedule for W5YI-VEC Amateur Radio exams for the year 2014. at the Community Room of the Bloomington Public Library located at the intersection of of E. Olive St. and S. East ST. Entrance off of S. East St. This is a CHANGE of LOCATION. Setup is from Noon to 1:00 normally. Exams begin at 1:00 P.M.. Questions may be directed to Keith Hanson via email preferably ac9s@hotmail.com or (309) 378-4416 Please bring two forms of identification. You must have a Social Security Number. We cannot administer a test without your SSN. You will need a copy of your Current license plus any CSCE you want to apply. The first test dates for 2014 are the following Saturdays: 1/18 - Done 3/15 Done (9 participants All got Tech 2 also got General) 5/03 - Done 7/19 - Done 11/08 - Unknown - the library if I can get it." Exams in Morton are held at the Morton Public Library, 315 West Pershing at 12:00 Noon the third Saturday of even numbered months or as noted. Feb 15, Apr 19, Jun 21, Aug 16, Sep 20(Superfest), Oct 18, and Dec20 Contact Bob Bush at tigrbob@gmail.com for more info. Page 7